I worked with Amy from SBC for all of my Round 1 B School Applications. Amy's proactive process and and working sessions helped me tremendously throughout the process. Amy and I started working together 2 months before the applications were due. This proactive timeline really set the foundation for my successful applications. We spent the first month of our time together defining my MBA story and perfecting my resume. Not only did these help my applications themselves but this time spent on refining my professional identity was irreplaceable during my interviews. As I was in the middle 80% of test scores and on the lower end of GPAs for top 20 programs, Amy partnered with my to make sure I stood out in my essays and interviews. We spent many virtual sessions unpacking significant events in my life and perfecting drafts of essays to ensure I was putting my voice and experience into each essay and interview.

After the deadlines, I was admitted to 2 of 3 of my first round schools, and was waitlisted at my top choice. Amy guided me through the best ways to stand out and show the AdCom that I was extremely passionate about this top choice. After 2 months on the waitlist and many updates sent to the AdCom, I was accepted in early Round 2 to my top choice.

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I reached out to Yvette after a recommendation from a colleague who got admitted to both HBS and GSB. I worked with Yvette on an All-In Package for the same two schools, and had a great experience.

From the very first conversation, Yvette helped to apply rigor and structure to my application and career goals, while still keeping my story authentic to who I am. Yvette applied "tough love" well, motivating me to come up with well-reasoned, "no-BS" answers for everything. By the time I submitted my application, I had done significant introspection, which paid off tremendously down the line as I was preparing for interviews. At the same time, Yvette was kind and understanding, always happy to hop on a call to help me calm my nerves, such as when I was unsure as to who should write my recommendations, despite a large time difference (I was based in Asia).

Ultimately, I was admitted first round to both HBS and GSB, and thank Yvette tremendously for the help!

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With Christina and SBC’s help, I received offers from 5 schools with scholarships totaling over half-million dollars and an admit from HBS, 6 out of 7 of all schools I applied to. Coming from an over-represented population and industry, I felt really thankful for the results, and therefore it's my great pleasure to share my story with Christina and SBC and to hopefully inspire other people with similar goals.

During our free 30-minute free consultation, which Esther arranged immediately after I reached out, Esther's being down-to-earth and transparent won me over. Unlike other consultants, she encouraged me to pursue the very top schools and quickly pointed out my weakness with action items even if I haven't purchased their services. Esther then matched me with Christina based on my background, which was a true blessing for me. Christina and I had an introduction call and she just impressed me with her insights, personalities, and work ethics. Feeling the click that Christina and SBC will help me succeed, I didn't even talk to other consultants and decided to work with Christina on 4 schools – every of which led to an offer with scholarship.

Among all wonderful things about Christina, I want to highlight three aspects that make her a perfect consultant for me - 1) She knows what schools care about and how to most strategically "brand" me. Based on my past experiences, she helped me define my winning strategy from the beginning and gave me actionable advice to strengthen my profile and story in a couple of months leading to the application season. She encouraged me to pursue a few relevant leadership activities, which ended up being the core component of my application. 2) She is incredibly hard-working, has super high standards, and has great attention to detail. In editing my essays and application form responses, she didn’t just switch words or phrases. She’d structurally improve my essays with top-notch writing skills. I was awed every time my essay was returned with a full screen of edits. From months of reading and working through Christina’s feedback on my essay, my writing skills certainly improved as well. 3) She is a genuine person and cares about my applications more than I do. While I worked with her on only 4 schools, she’s always generous in giving me feedback on my other three school applications. Her advice and overall strategy played a critical role in my two other offers even without her direct help. Whenever I felt “slacking”, she always motivated me to bring out my best self.

I also want to call out the team support from SBC in addition to Christina’s amazing work. Lisa, as my flight tester, provided honest and reassuring feedback on my application two months before the submission and left me with plenty of time to act upon. Anthony, the observer of the complimentary Wharton’s TBD, helped us get comfortable with the TBD format and shared useful tips. SBC’s repository of past successful essays, included in the package, was also handy and helpful!

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I had a really good experience with Joey and I thank him for it. Being a European, it was not really easy to understand the process. Thanks to my admission consultant, I was put at ease with it and I could ask all the questions I had.
Joey was very available, connecting on my time frame (which is very useful) and answering me very quickly. We managed to get everything done in only a few weeks. His greatest strength is his ability to understand candidates and help them give the best of themselves in process documents that match well with their personalities!
I would clearly recommand him and all the documents from SBC.

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I had an incredibly positive experience with Joey from SBC from our first call through the entire admissions process. He took considerable stress out of the application process, and fortunately I'll be heading to HBS in the fall.

As an applicant with a traditional finance background, Joey was able to push me out of my comfort zone and emphasize the parts of my personality that made me unique. I was nervous about needing a big moment for a successful personal statement, but Joey helped me craft an essay that demonstrated my underlying character in a creative way, an essay I ended up being really proud of after plenty of iteration and phone calls with Joey.

Joey was always available for a call or via email. On my interview day, he hopped on the phone with me on a moment's notice to run through random questions that had popped into my head.

I felt incredibly supported by Joey throughout the process and would highly recommend him for anyone going through it.

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Joey was paired with me and quickly showed to be a thoughtful, really smart, and just overall awesome coach and person to work with! He really took time to understand my background and aims for business school -- really a ton of thought and effort here -- and it proved quite valuable when we began discussing a plan for applications and making the actual materials.

I especially valued his feedback in that he understood my style and approach while also being super critical. He's an excellent writer and storyteller and his feedback was invaluable. All the materials I prepared struck a strong message and story thanks in large part to Joey, and I got into my dream school as a result.

His general coaching and helpfulness in all aspects was really outstanding. It was a pleasure working with Joey and I highly recommend him for helping prepare B school applications!

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I am an international engineer and a re-applicant. Following a rough application season in 2018 where I was dinged without interview at all 3 schools I applied to, I knew I needed to seek help from a professional consulting service.

What drew me to Stacy Blackman is the team work the team embodies. I had spoken to Esther Magna, when I was still contemplating an MBA and had not even taken the GMAT. She immediately reached out to me upon my request for a free consultation. She was very forthright about my candidacy and was also very understanding of my desire to not rush through a R2 2018 application despite the fact that I am an older candidate. It was this blend of honesty about my chances at some schools and the flexibility to accommodate me that made me choose SBC.

I was paired with Sherry Holland and she immediately got to work, crafting a strategy for the upcoming application season. I went for the 4 school all-in package and while the applications were gruelling, Sherry made it enjoyable and I daresay, fun! She was meticulous and organised, and kept me on task by setting deadlines for different milestones. I did not feel as harried or stressed as I had with my previous applications. She did a great job managing my recommenders, which is one of the more stressful parts of the application. She also was not afraid to tell me when I had a wrong path with regards to the essays. We had to do a lot of course correction throughout the process.

I benefited from the Flight Test, which was done by Beth Tidmarsh, who offered may useful insights that really made my application shine. The teamwork at SBC is truly unparallelled!

In the end, I was admitted to 3 of the 4 schools I applied to, all with significant scholarship! I know for sure this would not have been possible without Sherry and the extended team at Stacy Blackman.

I will be attending Tuck in the fall and I am eternally grateful to the team at SBC! I highly recommend Sherry and SBC.

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Knowing I wanted to employ a consultant in my MBA application process, I interviewed several firms and spoke with no less than 5 consultants before deciding on Caryn, who was highly ranked as a consultant already at the time. Working with Caryn, she was proactive, responsive, and I can tell her years of experience as an adcom officer lent her true expertise when it came to MBA admissions. Most importantly, she helped me to craft my story and explain my somewhat unorthodox post-MBA goals in a way that was both true to myself and worked well for the admissions process.
It was upon her suggestion that I applied to the Lauder/Wharton joint program, which we realized was an extremely good fit given my background and future goals, and where I will be matriculating this Spring (2020). Really happy with the guidance Caryn and the broader SBC team provided (including the Flight Test, and mock interviews) during this nearly year-long journey. Would highly recommend to anyone looking to apply to top programs, and are looking to craft/refine their story to stand out from the multitudes of applicants with competitive but common stats/scores/backgrounds!

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I utilized SBC's All-In package for two different schools and some hourly support for second round applications. I was paired with Yvette Romero, who was a fantastic support system throughout the entire application process. I had a very weak background as far as competitive GPA's and GMAT go (2.47 and 710 with a verbal heavy split), so I was definitely operating at a disadvantage during the process. Yvette helped me clarify ways to bring out the strengths of my technical career as well as ways to highlight the other strengths of my personal story. I've happily accepted an admissions offer from Kellogg with a scholarship, and that would not have been possible without her guidance. SBC is an expensive proposition but if you're serious about business school application and you have weak points in your profile, I highly recommend Yvette.

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I was very pleased with my decision to work with a Stacy Blackman admissions consultant, and Kim's guidance throughout the application process exceeded all of my expectations. With Kim's help, I was accepted into two top 5 MBA programs and received scholarship money to one of them.

Based on an initial kick-off meeting, Kim was able to effectively identify the strengths and weaknesses throughout my application which allowed me to target certain sections of the application to fine-tune.

More importantly, Kim worked with me for over 8 months throughout the process and gained an understanding of my personality and values in order to help me showcase my true self and stand out as a candidate.

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